The Undertaker
|birth_place=Houston, Texas, United States |death_date= |death_place= |resides= |billed=Houston, Texas Death Valley |spouses=Jodi Lynn (m. 1989–1993) Sara Frank (m. 2000–2007) Michelle McCool (m. 2010) |partners= |trainer=Don Jardine |debut=1984 |retired=April 4, 2017 }} Mark William Calaway (born March 24, 1965), better known by his ring name The Undertaker, is a retired American professional wrestler, who was signed to WWE. Calaway began his wrestling career with World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW) in 1984. After wrestling for World Championship Wrestling (WCW) as "Mean Mark" Callous from 1989 to 1990, he signed with the then World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) in 1990 and has remained since, making him the company's longest tenured in-ring performer. Calaway is widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time. As The Undertaker, Calaway's gimmick was a horror-themed, macabre entity who employed scare tactics and held links to the supernatural; the character was reinvented as a biker during a period in the early 2000s before returning to his previous gimmick in 2004. The Undertaker was the storyline of older half-brother of fellow WWE wrestler Kane, with whom he has alternately feuded and teamed with as The Brothers of Destruction. The Undertaker has been involved in various pivotal storylines and matches within WWE history. The Undertaker was known for The Streak, an unprecedented run of 21 straight victories at WWE's leading pay-per-view, WrestleMania (including main event matches at WrestleMania 13, WrestleMania XXIV, WrestleMania XXVI, and WrestleMania 33); he sustained his only loss at WrestleMania XXX to Brock Lesnar. Prior to his WWF/WWE career he also held the USWA Unified World Heavyweight Championship once and since unseating Hulk Hogan as WWF World Heavyweight Champion in 1991, he has won the WWF/WWE Championship five times and the WWE's World Heavyweight Championship three times. He also won the 2007 Royal Rumble. Professional wrestling career 'Early career (1984–1990)' 'World Championship Wrestling (1989–1990)' 'World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment/WWE' 'Western Mortician (1990–1991)' 'WWF World Heavyweight Champion (1991–1994)' 'The Original Deadman Era (1994–1996)' 'Lord of Darkness (1996–1998)' 'The Ministry of Darkness (1998–1999)' 'American Bad Ass (2000–2001)' 'Big Evil (2001–2003)' 'Return of the Deadman (2004–2007)' 'World Heavyweight Champion (2007–2010)' 'Final years of the Streak (2011–2014)' 'Resurgence and retirement (2015–2017)' In February 2015, Bray Wyatt began a series of cryptic promos which led to Fastlane, where Wyatt challenged Undertaker to a match at WrestleMania 31, which Undertaker accepted. At the event on March 29, Undertaker defeated Wyatt after two Tombstone Piledrivers. At Battleground in July, Undertaker made his return by attacking Brock Lesnar as Lesnar was on the verge of defeating Seth Rollins during his WWE World Heavyweight Championship match, which caused the match to end in a disqualification win for Lesnar. The next night on Raw, Undertaker explained his actions as revenge – not for Lesnar breaking the Streak, but rather the constant taunting he allowed Paul Heyman to engage in. Later that night, after Undertaker and Lesnar brawled throughout the arena and had to be separated, a rematch was scheduled for SummerSlam in August. At the pay-per-view, Undertaker defeated Lesnar in controversial fashion; Lesnar put Undertaker in his Kimura lock and the timekeeper rang the bell after seeing the Undertaker supposedly indicating submission; since the referee hadn't seen a submission and never stopped the match, the match continued. The confusion allowed Undertaker to surprise Lesnar with a low blow and apply Hell's Gate, in which Lesnar passed out. At Night of Champions it was revealed that Undertaker and Lesnar would battle once again at Hell in a Cell, at the event Undertaker defeated Lesnar inside hell in a cell after Lesnar removed the mat canvas exposing the wood panelling below and Undertaker hit Lesnar with a Tombstone Piledriver onto the wooden panels. While the crowd gave Undertaker an ovation after his loss to Lesnar, he was attacked and captured by The Wyatt Family (Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper, Erick Rowan and Braun Strowman), who carried him away from the ring. After ambushing and capturing Kane the next night on Raw, Wyatt explained that he had claimed their souls and stole their demonic powers. The Brothers of Destruction returned on the November 9 episode of Raw, and attacked The Wyatt Family, setting up a match at Survivor Series, which honored Undertaker's 25 years in WWE. It was revealed the following week that the match would be a 4-on-4 elimination match with Undertaker and Kane joined by Undertaker's long time tag partner James Harrison and Harrison's other long time tag partner Matthew Harrison. At the event Undertaker gained the final elimination pinning Wyatt after a Tombstone Piledriver thus becoming the lone survivor in the match. On the February 22, 2016 episode of Raw, Vince McMahon placed his son Shane McMahon, who returned to WWE for the first time since 2009, in a Hell in a Cell match at WrestleMania 32 against The Undertaker with the stipulation that if Shane wins, he gains control of Raw. Vince later decided that should The Undertaker lose the match against Shane, it would be his final match at WrestleMania. After weeks of mind games and physical confrontations between the pair, Undertaker defeated Shane McMahon at WrestleMania 32 on April 3. After going undrafted in the 2016 WWE draft, The Undertaker returned for SmackDown's 900th episode on November 15, 2016. The Undertaker interrupted Edge's Cutting Edge segment, which featured the SmackDown Survivor Series team members as guests. He first praised Shane McMahon, stating that he was the best person to be commissioner of SmackDown, and he said that he is back. He went on to issue a warning to Team SmackDown, telling them not to lose against Team Raw at Survivor Series or they would have reason to fear the Deadman. After the show went off air, Undertaker joined Kane onstage as they showed their signature poses. On the December 6, 2016 episode of SmackDown Undertaker returned once again, this time to challenge WWE Champion Cesaro to a title match at the Royal Rumble.